Adventures from Bulgaria: Autumn Memories

By Valeria Idakieva

A lot of people had been waiting for the winter, not only to go skiing, but also to enjoy the mountains covered in snow – white, clean, serene…. Undoubtedly they are beautiful, especially when the sun rays make the snow sparkle and the blue sky seems bluer than ever.

     However, not being much of a winter lover myself, last month when I went to the mountains, a sentence haunted me all the time and I couldn’t get it out of my mind, something like, “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” But I substituted ‘autumn’ for ‘summer’. Autumn has always surprised me with the richness of its colours and their combinations. So I could not help remembering images of last autumn, now coming to my mind and making me smile, warming my soul with memories of mellow autumn splendour.

    There was not a single cloud in the turquoise blue sky and the sun was generously pouring light, making the colourful forest stick in my mind.

    I could see the multicolored patches stretching far away meet the horizon.

    Let one additional photo, from a different day out, complete the canvas of autumn colours that so touch my heart.

When I got home that recent winter day, I researched the sentence that had haunted me the whole day and it turned out that it was by Albert Camus.

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, there is within me something stronger – something better, pushing right back.

Copyright © 2021 by Valeria Idakieva